Debt and financial difficulty in the Civil and Social Justice Survey

[Legal Beagles]

A report which looks at the demographics and effects of debt, the relationship with debt and other problems, and the impact of debt advice.
This research is conducted by the Legal Services Research Centre (LSCR) on behalf of Money Advice Trust (MAT). It draws on three years of information (2006-2009) from the English and Welsh Civil and Social Justice Survey (CSJS), a face-to-face household survey of peoples experience of, and responses to, rights problems.
It sets out to identify those groups for whom debt has become a problem, and establish whether particular populations are more or less vulnerable to becoming over-indebted than others. It also seeks to understand how problems arise, and identifies possible triggers and consequences of over-indebtedness.
The work aims to enrich existing research regarding people in debt, with particular reference to advice seeking strategies, impacts of debt problems, and the relationship with other problems that arise.
Key findings from the research include:

• Problems with debt/financial difficulty were associated with demographics and/or processes of social exclusion.
• Problems with debt/financial difficulty were highly related to other civil justice problems.
• People with debt/financial problems were more likely to report more problems overall.
• People with debt/financial difficulty were more likely to suffer clusters of problems.
• Problems with debt/financial difficulty lasted longer than other problem types.
• Problems with debt/financial frequently led to adverse consequences, notably stress related ill health.

To read the full report, click here.


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[Amethyst]

Re: Debt and financial difficulty in the Civil and Social Justice Survey

This is very interesting and has a look at peoples use of self help methods - including use of the internet. However I wish they had gone deeper into the use of the internet and detailed difference between self help sites like us, cag, mse etc and info sites like consumer direct etc. 'use of the internet' is FAR too broad for this type of survey.

Outside of advice service use, a significant minority of people handled their problem
alone. The occurrence of handling alone was noticeable higher for debt matters
compared against non-debt problems. In tandem with the high rate of ‘self help’
among those who had experienced a debt problem, there was a relatively high rate of
internet utilisation as well. The reasons for the comparatively high rate of referral to
the internet for information on solving debt problems are not particularly clear. It
could be speculated that the popularity of internet based information is in part
attributable to the maturing of online debt information services over the years, such
as the CCCS Debt Remedy, or the Financial Services Authority backed Money Made
Clear website.

It could also be ''speculated'' that CAB are too slow and CCCS are too rubberstampy and people need one on one advice which challenges the 'norm'. How can they not mention online discussions ? FSA tried a forum based approach and afaik failed miserably, too restricted by all the rules and regs which are meant to protect people but infact just hinder.

[thincat]

Re: Debt and financial difficulty in the Civil and Social Justice Survey

Tried CAB,tried CCCS. Not bad but limited AND they don't give you as much information. I
would not have found out a FRACTION of what I'm now aware of if it was not for sites like
Legal Beagles. Really it's a no brainerr-people go on the internet because the other
institutions don't give them enough advice-simples!

Thincat